About the author
Mary Ellen Lang Collura (b.1949) is a Canadian author. Her first young adult novel, Winners, was short listed for the Canada Council Award.
Mary Ellen Lang Collura grew up in Vancouver, and has worked as a teacher. When she was writing Sunny, she was living in British Columbia. She has written another book, Dreams, but I am not sure whether or not this was a horse book.
Finding the books
Winners was published in the UK (in hardback as Jordy, and in paperback as Winners) and is easy to find here. Sunny is more easily obtainable in the USA; both titles are very easy to find there.
Links and sources
Many thanks to Susan Bourgeau for all her help with this section.
Bibliography (horse books only)
Winners
Western Producer Prairie Books 1984, cover art by Oni
UK: as Jordy, Spindlewood, 120 pp, 1988
UK: as Winners, Canongate Kelpie, Edinburgh, 179 pp, 1990
Eleven foster homes in eight years, and moving again. 15 year old Jordy Threebears is returning to the Ash Creek Reserve to live with a grandfather he hardly knows. For Jordy, the years of resentment and anger prove difficult to overcome, until he receives the gift of a wild mare. With his horse Siksika, Jordy gains a companion as well as the determination to beat the odds.
Sunny
Irwin Publishing 1988 (trade size pb), cover art by Elaine Macpherson
General Paperbacks 1991
Sunny is injured in a race, and is rehabilitated by high school student Sophie, her brother, Mike, and their older friend, Olga, a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust. Sunny’s owner, impressed with the horse’s jump record, puts him under professional training. Will Sunny continue to win without Sophie and Mike to encourage him?”
